Win 7 won't let me access one folder on my windows home server

[KLC]

I have an Acer home server box running WHS V1 SP3. I have two computers that used to run Vista Home Premium and XP Pro. I could access all of my files on the home server without any problems.

About a month ago I upgraded both PCs to Win 7 Home Premium and ever since then I've had nothing but problems accessing my files on the server. Usually it just asked me for a username and password, and even though I would check the remember these settings box it would randomly ask me again and again.

Now I have a new problem that has me stumped. I can access all of the shared folders on the home server (photos, video, recorded TV, downloads) except for one, the one that contains all of our documents. When I click on that folder I get "Windows cannot access homeserver\documents. You do not have permission to access homeserver\documents. Contact you network administrator to request access."

This happens when I'm running as the administrator or other users. When I use the WHS console to access WHS and try to open the documents folder I get the same message. When I right click on the folder and click on the security tab I get the same message. The user account name on the Win 7 computer matches the user account in WHS. The documents folder has full access in the WHS console configuration screen. I can't think of anything more that I can do. Why can I not access just that one folder? And like I said, the maddening thing is that for about 4 weeks after the upgrade I was able to access this folder. I've spent several hours googling with no luck, can anyone help me out?

 

[KLC]

Any body have anything? I've spent more hours today on Google with no results, I've rebooted, I've created new user profiles, I've synchronized the clocks...I can find no way to access this folder. I spent time with Acer last night and their online chat and email service seem to exist only to funnel people into their paid phone call support, neither venue even gave me a hint about how to proceed.

 

[Binky]

Your username and password on the client machines should be exactly the same as their accounts on the WHS box. It should never ask you for a password to access any WHS shares. If it does, your username and password aren't the same.

By default, WHS v1 doesn't have a "documents" folder, does it? Did you create this folder?

 

[KLC]

Binky, thanks for replying. All I know is that the username on my client matches one of the usernames in the WHS username list. I've spent quite a bit of time searching information about usernames and passwords. Do you have any idea what I can do to verify that these match? Like I said, the thing that is maddening is that I can access my server, I can access all of the files on the server except one, and for the first 4 weeks after the upgrade I could access this folder as well. If it was a username/password mismatch wouldn't I have problems accessing the entire server and not just one folder on it?

 

[Binky]

If it was a username/password mismatch wouldn't I have problems accessing the entire server and not just one folder on it?

That's why I asked if you made the folder yourself. If you made and shared the folder yourself outside of the WHS dashboard, maybe the rights are screwed up for that folder. You can try making a new folder **through the dashboard** and assign the proper rights, also through the dashboard. IF the new folder is ok, just move your files there.

 

[KLC]

Somehow I missed your last question. I did make that folder but I did it through the WHS console. I'm going to try your suggestion and make another folder. I can access the files with remote desktop. Thanks for the help.

 

[tweakboy]

File might be locked,, try booting into safe mode and try again.. gl

 

[sm625]

Windows networking has always been bugged. I wish there was something like Dropbox, that worked over LAN as seamlessly as it does over the web. I would gut and replace all of Windows Notworking™ if I could.

Create a new folder and share it and make sure it works as it should. Then move the old broken folder's contents to the new folder.

 

[KLC]

sm625 and Binky, I tried creating a new folder through the WHS console this morning...the new folder also tells me I don't have permission to access it. I also tried making a folder through the console on my other PC that I upgraded to win 7 at the same time. Since I can access all my folders through that PC I thought maybe there was a chance that creating it from that PC would sprinkle some magic fairy dust on it. Still no permission.

Since this was a recent purchase of Win 7 I went to the MS website and found I qualified for free support from MS. This morning a tech took remote control of my PC for 1.5 hours, tried everything I had tried before, resolved nothing. He's calling back tomorrow, I don't have much hope.

Next stop, I'm going to reinstall Win 7 on this PC and see what happens. Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

 

[Ferzerp]

Don't reinstall. It's just the ACL on the folder or the share permissions. Whoever helped you at MS had no clue what they were doing.

 

[KLC]

Ferzerp, I don't have a clue either. From what I understand the ACL can be changed by clicking on the security tab of the folder properties window? But when I do that for this folder instead of seeing security settings it says I don't have permission and access is denied. And when I try to access permissions or ownership for this folder it says the same thing.

 

[Binky]

Try posting over at We Got Served forums. They are all about WHS. Although, I'm not clear if your problem with with WHS or Win7...

Side note and probably not helpful in your case, but I recently rebuilt a WHS 2011 box and I had an issue with one of my user names which had a dash in it. When you make the user account, there's a box for "description," which you fill in, then WHS automagically fills in the actual user name (<<<important point). In my case, the damned thing ignored the dash in the user name ONLY, but left it in the description. Of course, I wasn't paying attention since making a user account is very simple.

This computer had issues accessing the WHS machine and I couldn't see a reason why. Since the description is what shows in the user panel on WHS 2011, I saw the exact same user name. I changed passwords but nothing worked. I was stumped, until I actually pulled up the user properties and saw that it omitted my dash. Problem solved.

 

[KLC]

I posted this at the We Got Served forums but there just isn't a lot of traffic there and there were no responses. I also posted it at the official MS Windows Home Server forum, that forum has a lot of traffic and some very knowledgeable posters. But even though it has more than 100 views and I've posted a few follow ups no one has replied.

As for the user names, I feel like Alice descening into the rabbit hole when I try to really understand what is going on. It seems like that is the problem but so far no luck understanding what it is.

 

[sm625]

There is never a shortage of people telling you you dont know what you're doing, all you gotta do is check this or add that. No, windows networking is completely broken. It's not about what somebody does or doesnt do. It just doesnt work and needs a complete 3rd party replacement. I use dropbox because it works. It doesnt give me stupid errors for one folder and not another even though I set them all up the same exact frickin way. I dont need some know-it-all jackass to tell me that I did something wrong when I did the same exact EXACT thing for a whole series of network shares, yet some work and some dont. No, that is a symptom of completely broken software and nothing else. It is sad that it is easier and faster to transfer files using a thumb drive or all the way across the internet than it is to transfer files across a LAN, even though I've been complaining to M$ for over 10 years now, and they never fixed the old bugs they just keep adding new ones.

Funny thing is win98 works reasonably well. 99/100 times I go to hit a 98 machine, it responds without problem. I would use win98 as a server if you want no hassle.

 

[KLC]

The server has been part of my network for 3 years, everything worked. I upgraded 2 computers to win 7 at the same time. This one had XP Pro the other had Vista Home Premium. The old Vista PC networks just like it always did, this one has this annoying glitch.

I wouldn't have violated my PC prime directive, never ever change something that is working, except for three reasons. One, I wanted to use Adobe Lightroom 4, it won't run on XP. Two, I've looked at Win 8 and decided I didn't want any part of it, since XP support will end eventually and Win 7 has been received so positively I decided it was time to upgrade while Win 7 was still current. Three, I wanted windows media center on the XP machine.

 

[KLC]

One last post for posterity in case anyone ever searches on this in the future. Since I had a new install of Win 7 that caused this problem I qualified for free MS tech support. Over 3 days I talked to and had MS tech support take control of my computer for more than 2 hours total. After much playing around, duplicating most of what I had tried on my own, the techs accessed WHS server through remote desktop, used windows explorer to access the D drive and checked the Properties of each shared folder. They added Everyone with Full permission to the Permissions box in the Sharing tab of Properties and they added Everyone with Full permission to the Security tab of Properties.

As I said in the first post, I couldn't access my Documents folder at all, it said I didn't have permission. But I also discovered during this process that I couldn't save anything to any of my other folders, as well as discovering that new folders created from the WHS console also could not be accessed. By changing the permissions and security I was able to read and save to all of my folders. Problem solved? If only it were that simple. The next morning I sat down at my computer and shared Documents was again inaccessible and all other shared folders again would not let me save to them. I discovered that when the server shut down over night and restarted in the morning all of the changes were lost.

So I can manually fix this problem but it doesn't stay fixed. The Win 7 tech support gave up after this and directed me to the MS Windows Home Server forum where I "should receive the help I need". That is the forum I originally posted to, adding several followup posts and got only one irrelevant reply.

After this whole process I think MS tech support was just as clueless as I was and still am about this problem. They seemed to be shooting in the dark, hoping to find something that worked. And I'm still convinced this is a Win 7 problem since I have another client PC on my network that I also upgraded to Win 7 at the same time. It has full access to all shared folders, just as it did before the upgrade, which makes me think that WHS isn't the problem. The only difference between these two PCs is that the problem computer was running XP Pro and needed a clean install. The other computer with no problems was running Vista Home Premium and was able to do the upgrade install.